Thomas Malthus was a renowned British Cleric who made significant contributions to the field of political economy and, most famously, demography.

Malthus’ theory on population growth asserted that mass starvation would manifest because the growth rate of the population would overtake the growth rate of food production. Reverend Malthus claimed that population would grow too fast as a result of the inevitable passion between the sexes.

However, he argued that population could be controlled naturally (by disease and starvation) or by human interference (abortion, infanticide, delayed marriage and celibacy). Malthus defends his assertion that mankind must interfere to hold back population growth by arguing that suffering is inevitable when there is over-population. His theory had a major influence on Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace and the formulation of the theory of natural selection.

Interesting Fact

Thomas Malthus’ ideas have been referenced in pop culture time and time again. For example, in ‘A Christmas Carol’, Ebenezer Scrooge points to Malthus’ work for the reason as to why he refused to donate to the poor: “If they would rather die they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population”.

“The superior power of population cannot be checked without producing misery or vice.”